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Police warn GTA drivers as death toll climbs

Drivers in the GTA need to snap out of cruise control and use their eyes instead of relying on the gadgets in their cars, police are saying in the wake of a rash of accidents in the past week that killed pedestrians.

By Carmen ChaiStaff Reporter

Fri., Jan. 15, 2010

Drivers in the GTA need to snap out of cruise control and use their eyes instead of relying on the gadgets in their cars, police are saying in the wake of a rash of accidents in the past week that killed pedestrians.

"What's happened in just a few days shows us what's going on, and we really do not want to continue on this path," said Const. Hugh Smith of traffic services.

He said the city encounters an average of six pedestrian accidents a day, but there has been a dangerous spike in the severity of injuries.

Thursday morning, a 25-year-old woman was pronounced dead in the busy bus loop outside Shoppers World at Steeles Ave. and Hurontario St. in Brampton after a transit bus hit her.

On Tuesday, Steven Seixeiro, 17, was on his way to school in Vaughan when he was hit by a semi-trailer turning the corner at Rutherford Rd. and Keele St. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Hours later, Vaughan resident Nouhad-Nicholas Al-Kassouf, 80, was struck by a car in Roncesvalles Village while crossing the y-shaped intersection of Roncesvalles Ave. and Dundas St. W. with her 42-year-old son.

Her head hit the pavement. She died in hospital Wednesday morning. Her son was injured.

But Smith said the death of 28-year-old mother Marites Mendoza on Tuesday "scared everybody."

Mendoza was pushing her 7-week-old son in a stroller when a Toyota Camry allegedly ran a red light and hit her while she was crossing Martin Grove Rd. at Eglinton Ave. Mendoza managed to push her baby out of harm's way, but was pronounced dead at the scene.

"We finally see we have to change our attitudes. Driving has become so desensitized ... with tinted windows, televisions, comfortable seats and gadgets that have to beep to tell us we're going to hit something. We don't even feel the road anymore," Smith explains, labelling Toronto motorists as "segregated."

He said motorists are "driving by technology and not skill." But pedestrians who rely on traffic lights to determine their safety instead of watching what's going on around them often share the blame.

Smith points to the recent pedestrian deaths in bus terminals, including an elderly woman struck by a GO bus at a pickup point at Durham College last Friday.

He's shocked when he sees commuters running between buses pulling into the terminal – "and they do this as a shortcut."

"Honestly, at this point," he said, "we could all be walking, cycling, driving in the same direction and there'll be a conflict within a block. That shouldn't happen."

Councillor Bill Saundercook, who is co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee, has faced criticism for seeking to reduce vehicle speed limits by 10 km/h on city streets. "But I'm prepared to face all the insults because I know that what I'm asking for is not ridiculous," he said.

The Toronto Pedestrian Committee reviews all pedestrian fatalities in the city and attempts to educate drivers and pedestrians on safe navigation.

Saundercook said the public should be "very concerned, because we're in a situation where the gridlock is so bad, it brings drivers to road-rage levels," and pedestrians are the victims.

Toronto had 31 pedestrian deaths last year, 19 of them seniors, Smith said.

"If we keep in a rush-rush world with tunnel vision and tunnel thoughts," he said, the problem will only get worse. "The accidents are turning fatal."

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